African ministers criticise IMF policies

African ministers said on Sunday it was time the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stopped "imposing" economic policies on the continent without consultation.

Trevor Manual, the South African finance minister, told an economic conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that there should be "nothing about us without us. I think it is time for decisions in the IMF to no longer to be imposed on us, but to derive from consultation with us."

However, the Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi cautioned against alienating the IMF, thereby running the risk of "pushing Africa into the ghettos of the international financial system".

The talks are focusing on Africa's debt burden and the future role of the IMF on the continent.

Kingsley Amoako, the head of the Economic Commission for Africa, called for "new policies, instruments and initiatives" to tackle Africa's enormous debt burden. The continent pays a staggering US $14 billion a year in old debt repayments, which, many argue, seriously hinders economic development.

Ethiopia - the world's third-poorest country - pays around US $90 million a year in debt servicing alone, this being almost equivalent to its entire health budget.

Amoako also revealed that the continent faced an economic slowdown, with growth rates at just 3.1 percent in 2002, which is only slightly in excess of the continent's population growth.